Like 28-year-old Adebolajo, Adebowale, who may have met his apparent co-conspirator while they attended university, is of Nigerian descent and comes from a Christian background. As in the case of Adebolajo, Wednesday’s events left those who know Adebowale stupefied at the conversion of a football-loving adolescent into an apparent killer.

A schoolfriend, who had known Adebowale for a decade at nearby Kidbrooke School, one of Britain’s first purpose-built comprehensives, told The Independent that he had converted to Islam in the past four years but shown no sign of extremism.

Tony, 23, said: “Mike was a normal kid – football, bit of blow, girlfriends, the normal things. We mucked around together but he got all religious when he was around 18 or 19. He’s not an in-your-face kind of guy so he didn’t really talk about Islam much. I definitely didn’t hear him talk about violence or anything. He was into peaceful stuff. But I haven’t seen him for a couple of years. I don’t know what happened since.”